ALT.SF4M Amusements 1/12/97 • j********o@***.com 15/01/1998 00:00:000 UTC _Pastwatch_ ("The Redemption of Christopher Columbus") by Orson Scott Card. I can't say why I bought this book - I don't even like Card, but something about the cover art interested me, then I read a few pages and despite the multicultural overtones sensed some potential. It turned out to be pretty good, and notably lacking in Card's usual flaws, these being: unbalanced, unuanced political disagreements; really annoying neurotic characters; hackneyed Gothic scenes as cheap character exposition; and a creepy, smarmy Christalogical element, with hints of eroticism, even pederasty. Yuck! (The book does somewhat endorse Christianity but it shouldn't upset any reader save for the most energetic sort of bigot. It is rather amazing that Card is published and critically acclaimed despite his persistently Christian outlook; I guess that it's allowable as long as it has an unorthodox tone and includes a balancing criticism of organized Christianity!) Anyway, the book is set in 2200 or so, when the few survivors of the commercial age live in multicultural harmony, healing the ravaged Earth, and where teams of historical researchers view the past through machines. Well, *naturally*, they discover that they _can_ change the past, after all, and they start a project to fix history, aimed at alleviating much of the suffering of the world on its way to the Golden Age - starting with the European conquest of the Americas, thus the subtitle. I can't say much more without giving away too much, but he does present some interesting, if implausible, historical ideas, as well as some not-too-implausible alternative history. I generally disagree with the coincidental "great idea" notion of history the book endorses, but it's probably a necessary assumption to make such a radical recasting of history seem possible. Multiculturalism doesn't work now!, much less with the realities of the past. Collective ownership of land is inconsistent with political freedom, prosperity, and sustained technological innovation. The project they undertake is either too ambitious or insufficiently so: if they want to avoid the ravages of the 20th Century industrial age, they should simply send their clean technologies back to 1900 or so; if they want to avoid religious differences, insure that all men _always_ worshipped the same God (not that that would help very much, if you ask me). Card (or his characters) take it on faith that the better result they postulate for the encounter with the Americas would result in a more humane history in the long run. The flaws of human nature are constant - only civilizations can civilize men, and between human nature, the nature of civilizations, and the realities of the landscape they inhabit, only an incremental progress (for the better, at least) in the character of mankind and the tenor of his civilization are possible. It is human nature to seek advantage and power, to make enemies and compete with them. Thus, I assert that it would be impossible to "fix" history, even if you could "fix" a particular situation; only the _sustained_ and energetic intervention of a superhuman force could truly change the disagreeable nature of human history. That would have made a more interesting story, within the technological framework of the novel. Anyway, it was pretty good, and much better than anything I've read by him before. Gorno What do you give to a congested cyborg? Robotussin! Get it? HA HA HA! GET IT?! ROBOT-USSIN!! You _will_ laugh!! • Jeff Covington 17/01/1998 00:00:000 UTC JohnGorno wrote in message <1*************.********2@l*******.****.***l.com>... >_Pastwatch_ ("The Redemption of Christopher Columbus") by Orson Scott Card: It is rather amazing that Card is >published and critically acclaimed despite his persistently Christian outlook; >I guess that it's allowable as long as it has an unorthodox tone and includes a >balancing criticism of organized Christianity!)>> I just started reading the book but your comment caught my eye. Would it be fair to say that those who hate christianity are biggoted in their view? Why is this an unmentionable religion/philosophy? strange how some preach tolerance and multiculturism yet only for the people they pick. Can we afford to be so selective and still do unto others as we wish them to do to us? I don't mean to be antagonistic , rather I wish to treated with a little more understanding than is currently found in the tolerant multicultural circles. • b********r@p*******e.com 02/03/1998 00:00:000 UTC j********o@***.com (JohnGorno) wrote: >_Pastwatch_ ("The Redemption of Christopher Columbus") by Orson Scott Card. I >can't say why I bought this book - I don't even like Card, but something about >the cover art interested me, then I read a few pages and despite the >multicultural overtones sensed some potential. It turned out to be pretty >good, and notably lacking in Card's usual flaws, these being: unbalanced, >unuanced political disagreements; really annoying neurotic characters; >hackneyed Gothic scenes as cheap character exposition; and a creepy, smarmy >Christalogical element, with hints of eroticism, even pederasty. Yuck! (The >book does somewhat endorse Christianity but it shouldn't upset any reader save >for the most energetic sort of bigot. It is rather amazing that Card is >published and critically acclaimed despite his persistently Christian outlook; >I guess that it's allowable as long as it has an unorthodox tone and includes a >balancing criticism of organized Christianity!) I really liked this book (even nominated it for a Hugo last year, but it didn't make the ballot). OTOH, I like Card (at least the "Alvin Maker" series). It should not be surprising that a Morman would criticize organized Christianity, which has persecuted the Mormans since their founding. Perrianne Lurie BucCONeer, the 56-th World Science Fiction Convention August 5-9, 1998, Baltimore, Maryland, USA P.O. Box 314, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701 b********r@b********.********n.org http://www.bucconeer.worldcon.org Personal E-mail: b********r@p*******e.com